


gonna shine tonight

by acezukos (purplefennels7)



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Fluff, Meet-Cute, a weird amount of bonding over chemistry, also gratuitous lesbian earrings, hot topic mai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:41:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29279373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplefennels7/pseuds/acezukos
Summary: All that is to say, from everything she knows about her, Ty Lee doesn’t really seem like the type of person to come into Hot Topic. But apparently today she’s chosen to do so, looking completely out of place in her pink sweatshirt and leggings surrounded by racks and racks of dark clothes.“Hi, Mai!” she says brightly, coming up to the counter and grinning at her. Huh. Mai didn’t know Ty Lee knew her name.or: mai works at hot topic. ty lee keeps going to the mall after school.
Relationships: Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 49
Collections: Avatar Rarepair Exchange 2021





	gonna shine tonight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fleurmione_trash_no1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleurmione_trash_no1/gifts).



> for fleurmione_trash_no1 for the 2021 avatar rarepair exchange!! i hope you enjoy this fluffy mailee <33 
> 
> disclaimer: i have not stepped into a hot topic for over two years, so if i've gotten something wrong, that's probably why. also, the weird amount of focus on chemistry is on me. i have exams this week :/
> 
> title from party poison by mcr

Mai pulls into the last spot in the far corner of the mall parking lot, shifting the car into park and pulling her backpack out of the passenger seat. There’s no one this far out in the lot, especially because it’s the middle of the week, but even on the weekends she likes to park all the way out here. Fewer shitty parking jobs for her to navigate around. Her coworkers always look at her weird when they see her walking all the way out at the end of her shift, but it isn’t exactly like she’s trying to be friends with them anyway and she doesn’t mind the trek.

On the days that she drives Zuko into work she does park a little bit closer just because he’ll whinge in her ear for what feels like hours about the walk and she’s heard that one too many times, but today it’s just her and the My Chemical Romance still pumping from her speakers.

She sighs and turns the car off, silencing the music, and props her head in her hand for a second before gathering the energy to shove the door open and swing her bag over her shoulder. She’d really rather not interact with people today, but she’s seventeen and in high school. Customer service was pretty much the only job she could’ve gotten.

At least most of the people that come into Hot Topic aren’t really interested in making conversation. She’d probably just die if she had to work at Starbucks or something.

The first hour or so of work is boring, and she lasts about fifteen minutes before she caves and pulls her chemistry textbook out of her backpack. She isn’t bad at the class, but something about the most recent chapter isn’t clicking in her head and they have a test next week. She’s already gotten a B-minus on the last one, so if she doesn’t do well this time, that might be the end of her car privileges. And that would probably mean losing her job and actually having to go home after school, and she does not want to deal with that.

Another hour passes, people coming in every so often to browse, but no one bothers her except to pay for things or ask where something is. And then she hears a familiar voice outside, and looks up from the problem she’s restarting for the third time to see Ty Lee calling something to her group of friends and then pushing through the door, making the bell jingle.

Mai knows Ty Lee from her chemistry class; or at least she knows that she sits in the opposite back corner from Mai and is always giggling over something or the other. She’s also pretty sure that she’s the one that keeps beating Mai on exams, but honestly, if she manages to beat Azula too then Mai isn’t too bothered about it.

All that is to say, from everything she knows about her, Ty Lee doesn’t really seem like the type of person to come into Hot Topic. But apparently today she’s chosen to do so, looking completely out of place in her pink sweatshirt and leggings surrounded by racks and racks of dark clothes.

“Hi, Mai!” she says brightly, coming up to the counter and grinning at her. Huh. Mai didn’t know Ty Lee knew her name.

“Hey, Ty Lee,” she answers after the silence drags out for a couple beats too long, and if it’s possible it seems like Ty Lee’s smile gets bigger when she hears Mai say her name. “Did you need something?”

“Nope! I just recognized you from chem and wanted to say hey.” They look at each other for a moment again, and Mai cuts her eyes at the textbook still spread out next to the cash register. She doesn’t know why she wants to keep talking to Ty Lee, but the words are out of her mouth before she can take them back.

“Do you know how to do problem 34? I’m stuck on the last step of the reaction.” Ty Lee beams, and sets her backpack down on the floor with a thunk that belies its weight.

“Here-” Her voice gets quieter as she drops down to dig through it. After about thirty seconds, Mai starts regretting her choices. “I know it’s here somewhere, I just have so much stuff. Just give me a minute…”

“Ty Lee-” Mai starts, biting her lip. Her manager lets her do homework at the register as long as she still does her actual job, but if Ty Lee actually starts explaining this to her, she thinks that might be a step over the line.

“Gah, I’m sorry, I know you’re working,” Ty Lee says, popping back up with a sheaf of papers in her hand. The little frog earrings she’s wearing swing back and forth as she hands them over. “Here, take my notes, the answer should be in there somewhere. You can give them back to me later.”

“Later?” Mai asks. She doesn’t exactly expect to see Ty Lee in here again - actually, she still doesn’t know why she’s here in the first place; she hadn’t even picked anything up to buy before coming over to talk to her.

“Yeah, like in class or something. Whenever is cool, just before the test you know?” Oh. That was stupid.

“Thanks,” she says finally, taking them from her. “Are you gonna buy anything?”

 _Way to ruin it, Mai._ Not like there was anything happening to ruin, but that’s a hell of a way to thank someone who’s basically saving her grade right now.

“Oh! Yeah, gimme a sec.” Ty Lee darts off and returns with a set of earrings, pushing them onto the counter and starting to count out money from her wallet. Mai rings her up, accepting the stack of coins she pushes over without complaint.

“Sorry about the change, I just hate carrying it around,” Ty Lee apologizes, and Mai shakes her head even though she hates counting up coins.

“No, me too. It’s like, loud,” she says.

“Exactly, see, you get it.” Ty Lee accepts the paper bag with the earrings in them, and gives Mai another brilliant smile. “See you in class!”

And then she’s gone, leaving Mai with a jangly cash register and feeling a little bit like she’s just been run over. She thinks she might’ve seen a lesbian pin on Ty Lee’s backpack when she’d swung it around to get her wallet, but she can’t really be sure.

Before she can think too much about why she’d noticed that, there’s someone else coming up to the counter and she lets out a long breath before turning to face them.

“Hey, um, I think you guys are out of the pins over there…”

Yeah, it’s going to be one of those days. She doesn't know what else she expected.

* * *

Ty Lee waves at her when she comes into chemistry the next day. Zuko gives her a weird look, but he doesn’t get to talk when she’s his only friend.

She goes over to Ty Lee’s desk at the end of class. While she’s waiting for her to pack up her notebook, notices that she’s wearing a different set of earrings today, a pair of little silver daggers that look eerily similar to a set that Mai has on her own dresser.

“Hey, is it okay if I keep your notes for another day?” she asks when Ty Lee finishes and looks up at her.

“Yeah! Were they helpful at all? I know like, people can’t really read cursive a lot of the time.”

“Would I be asking to look at them longer if I couldn’t read them?” Mai deadpans, and Ty Lee laughs, sweeping her bangs behind one ear.

“Wey, you never know. Maybe you wanted to try and decipher them again.”

“Well - yes, they were helpful. Thank you.” 

“You’re welcome.” Ty Lee starts to get up, but she hasn’t picked up her backpack yet. Mai sees it happen a split second before it does - one of her shoelaces has gotten caught in the zipper when she’d closed it up, and she overbalances when she tries to stand. She falls neatly into Mai’s arms where she’s shot them out to catch her, and they just blink at each other for the space of a few breaths. Ty Lee’s eyes are big with surprise, and very brown in the glow of the fluorescent lights overhead, and Mai can’t tear her gaze away.

And then Ty Lee pops back to her feet, using Mai’s arm for balance. Her hand is warm against Mai’s skin, and Mai feels colder than usual when she lets go.

“God, you’d never think I did gymnastics. Thanks for catching me,” she says.

“Y - yeah, no problem,” Mai answers, stepping awkwardly back so Ty Lee can untangle her shoelace and grab her bag. The classroom has basically emptied in the couple of minutes they’ve been standing there, leaving them to walk out together.

“Which way are you going?” Ty Lee asks, holding the door open for Mai and then letting it slam shut.

“Oh, upstairs. History.” Ty Lee winces in sympathy.

“That sucks. I’m that way - math. See you later!”

“Oh, see ya.”

 _That was so awkward,_ Mai thinks as she makes her escape, flush rising on her cheeks. She calls Zuko a useless bi all the time, but apparently she’s not any better.

He’s never going to find out about this, not if she can help it.

* * *

She doesn’t talk to Ty Lee again for a couple of days as she gets absorbed in cramming, besides a brief moment when she passes her notes back in the middle of class with a thank you scribbled hastily on a sticky note and taped to the first page. The exact problem she’d gotten stuck on turns out to be the last question on the exam, and she resists the urge to do a little fist pump as she starts writing down her answer. Ty Lee winks at her as she goes up to drop her test off, and she hides the smile trying to escape behind her hair.

Ty Lee is back at Hot Topic the day after, a bouquet of pink roses tucked into the mesh pocket of her backpack and adding to the general splash of colour that she brings to the place. Mai tries not to be surprised when she sees her, and generally fails.

“How’d the test go?” Ty Lee asks when she comes to the counter. With a little jolt Mai notices that she’s holding a keychain with the lesbian flag on it, and her earrings today are curtains of tiny beads strung in the same colours. For her own part Mai’s wearing the dagger earrings, and she sees Ty Lee’s eyes catch and hold on them as she takes the keychain to punch in the price.

“Wait, are the grades out yet?” Mai says, determinedly not making eye contact.

“Yeah, he posted them just a couple minutes ago. I guess you haven’t looked yet?”

“Nah. How did you do? Good, I bet.” Ty Lee blushes a little, looking bashful.

“I mean, I probably made a bunch of stupid mistakes, but I did okay. I’m sure you did great though!”

“Don’t hold your breath,” Mai says dryly, passing Ty Lee her purchase.

“Oh, don’t be like that. You’ve got it from what I saw in class the other day.” She grins at Mai, immediately taking the keychain out of the paper bag and hooking it onto the top zipper of her bag. “Here, you can take this back.”

She hands the bag back over the counter, but she overreaches and her fingers collide with Mai’s. Mai freezes, their hands hooked together and squashing the bag between them.

“Sorry,” Mai stutters, snatching her hand back and curling it into a fist at her side. She knows there’s a blush on her cheeks, a curse of her complexion, and hopes that the lights are dim enough that Ty Lee can’t see it.

A strange expression passes over Ty Lee’s face, but it’s gone in the next blink.

“Don’t apologize, I’m just clumsy. That’s my bad.” Before Mai can tell her that she isn’t clumsy at all, she spins around and makes to leave. As she moves, the roses catch on one of the displays next to the counter, and one of them falls out of the pocket. Mai grabs it before it can fall to the floor.

“Wait-!” But Ty Lee’s gone already, dashing back out to where her friends are waiting for her, most of them looking bored, and probably embarrassed to be seen within a hundred feet of a Hot Topic.

Mai looks down at the rose in her hand, feeling her heart jump in her chest, and that makes absolutely no sense. The rose wasn’t for her, it just fell out of Ty Lee’s bag. It’s probably from one of the million boys that seem to have a crush on her at any one time. But she’s suddenly thinking about Ty Lee maybe bringing her flowers, and there’s no way that she’d know that roses are Mai’s favourite - hey, they’re a classic - but it’s a very specific coincidence. If Mai believed in that sort of thing, she might think it’s the universe trying to tell her something.

Maybe it’s a good thing she hadn’t gotten to say what she was going to. She doesn’t know how she would’ve explained away knowing that Ty Lee isn’t clumsy without admitting that she’s been going to all of her gymnastics competitions, lurking in the shadows so no one sees her.

If she’s completely honest with herself, she’s had a little bit of a crush on her for a long time. Not since the first time she’d seen her, because that’s just sad, and also something that only happens in the romance novels that she definitely does not steal from Zuko when she’s over at his uncle’s. But not not since then, either. By now she’d resigned herself to just watching from a distance, because there was no reason that Ty Lee would talk to her and she’d been expecting it to stay that way until they graduated and went their separate ways.

That much has changed already. And somewhere in the deep part of Mai’s heart, she wonders how much more might still be left to change.

She hesitates for a minute, then pulls her phone out and calls up her grades. She keeps the rose clenched in her hand as the page loads, and then her breath leaves her involuntarily when the numbers pop up.

An A. She’s gotten an A. _Finally._

She wants to tell Ty Lee. It doesn’t make that much sense; it’s not like she’d tutored her or anything, but she still feels like she wouldn’t be here if not for her.

As it turns out, Ty Lee finds her first. She corners her in the morning before classes start, looking oddly determined as she comes up to where Mai is putting books away in her locker. There’s no one else down at the end of this hallway, but Mai still looks around as if Ty Lee might be looking for someone else.

“Do you want to get ice cream with me after school?” she asks. Mai blinks. And blinks again.

“Like…” she says, uncomprehending.

“Like a date, yes,” Ty Lee says, biting her lip and tucking one foot behind the other. Something flutters to life inside Mai’s chest, not butterflies but - flowers, maybe, blooming around her heart.

“Then, yes.” Ty Lee beams, like a miniature sun the way it lights up the hall. Mai can’t stop the little smile that sneaks onto her face, and doesn’t want to. 

On a whim she takes Ty Lee’s hand and presses her mouth against her knuckles.

“Don’t tell anyone I did that,” she says, pulling away. She doesn’t let go of Ty Lee’s hand.

“Your secret is safe with me.”

Yes, Mai thinks. There’s a lot left to change, and it already looks like it’ll be for the better.

**Author's Note:**

> tysm for reading!! comments and kudos make me very happy <3
> 
> on [tumblr](https://pianjeong.tumblr.com)


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